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Hello all. Was playing with my 45/70 G.G. on the weekend. My first handload was 53gr 3031 and the Hornady 350gr round nose. Avg. for 5 shots was 1667 fps. Moved up to 54 grains and avg. went to 1760. Also tried the 400 gr speer with 53 gr of 3031 and it to avg just over 1700fps.
The Hornady's were almost touching at 100 yrds and the 400's were 4-5 inch group.
I am happy with the 350's and will try them out (hopefully) on a black bear real soon. Accuracy is good and I think 1760fps is not to bad.
Any one here use this bullet in the guide gun and if so on what critters and at what velocity? Stew

Drop that IMR-3031 load back to 50.0 grains under either the 400 grain Speer or the 405 grain Remington JFP and you should get MOA accuracy - I do in my M1895. I have not chronographed the load yet, but surely it is fast enough for hogs or black bear.

Just tried out a new loading. I cast up at 20:1 400 gr Lyman flat nosed bullets, 31 grains of AA5744. Nominal speed is 1400. Shoots pretty nice. Sure as heck don't want or require hardcast and speed ain't needed much. I expect hey ain't going to be bouncing off of any critter I know of in N.A. Next up is to work with the Smith Marlin barrel ladder sights I put on. Should be able to get a few hundred yards out of it.

350 gr Hornady FP with 55 gr of Benchmark. Should be in your ballpark for velocity. Or try a 405 Remington FP with the same load. Hang on to that one --

use the hornady 350gr as my favorite for my SSk 'tender. will double check, but i think it was running around 1500fps or a tad over. have some pix of one recovered from a head on-shot at a hog, will see if i can dig those pix up. have shot them faster from my Ruger #1's, great bullet, and will work perfectly at 1700fps.